Fan Yafeng: Through the Wilderness, Desert Wisdom and Grace China

Fan Yafeng*

1. The Exodus of Chinese House Churches and Their Journey through the Wilderness

(1) The purpose of going out of Egypt is to enter Canaan, and going through the wilderness is a refinement between entry and exit.

(2) To pass through the wilderness is to abandon all creatures

1. The home and the outdoors; the gates and the wilderness

2. The center of refinement in the wilderness is to abandon all creatures

2. Wisdom through the wilderness and desert

(1) Three Models of Desert Wisdom and Spiritual Tradition: Desert Godfather-Monastery-World Monastery

(2) The core structure of desert wisdom

(3) The journey through the wilderness of Chinese house churches is to cross the spiritual desert, open rivers in the desert, turn the desert into a spring, and pray for the living water and light of grace

3. Grace China and Grace Theology

(1) Grace China is a China that forgives sins, a China that is blessed by the love of the cross, and a China that renews life with the blood of Jesus

(2) The center of grace China is to receive the covenant of grace

(3) Grace China needs to return the Puritans to the Augustine tradition of grace theology

1. The center of the theology of grace is the middle way of the cross

2. The core structures of the theology of grace are spiritual theology, public theology, and biblical theology

3. The theology of grace is the renewal of Chinese cultural traditions and the way of new inner saints and outer kings

The Christianization of culture and the nationalization of the church are the two major tasks of the Chinese church after evangelization, which requires narrative, that is, the logic of a story. The word history in English refers to "his story", the story of God. The history of the world is the history of redemption, a conclusion drawn from the biblical worldview and historical view. For this reason, the Christianization of Chinese culture cannot possibly require a narrative, and the Chinese church needs to form a core narrative about the Christianization of culture. This core narrative involves the current positioning of Chinese house churches. There are currently three positions for the Chinese church. The most common thing heard in rural churches is that the current church is very similar to the church in the apostolic period. This is an intuitive and natural analogy. And it is true that many rural churches have repeatedly studied the Acts of the Apostles as a basis for church governance and pastoral care with few reference books.

The second one is proposed by Brother Zhang Yinan. The current period of the Chinese church is very similar to that of the Reformation period. Therefore, the Chinese church needs a second religious reformation. Brother Zhang has extensive contacts with churches across the country in Henan, and he is very sensitive. I often get a lot of inspiration from him. This formulation reflects the vitality of the Henan church. Up to now, Henan Church has continuously contributed new ideas and maintained spiritual vitality. I think the reference to the Second Reformation is very valuable, because the situation the church is in now is indeed somewhat similar to the situation that Luther and Calvin faced during the Reformation. In the face of China, a country with a vast territory and an ancient civilization, a Christian theology and a set of concepts originating from Europe and the United States need to be contextualized in the process of building and shepherding after the evangelization of China. As for the difficulty of contextualization, we have already realized it now. For example, in the past 20 to 30 years, tens of millions have been passed on. It is reasonable to say that this number can have a great impact on society, but we have seen the number of Christians. It is very disproportionate to the influence that the church should have, and the church is in a very weak position. When I say this, I do not emphasize the cultural mission. I first emphasize the duty, and secondly emphasize the cultural Christianization. In my opinion, cultural construction is a natural expression of inner life, and there is no need to emphasize cultural mission in particular. The testimony of Christians is not glorified enough. The root cause is the set of things we brought from outside. In the process of building, shepherding, and governance, there is a problem of acclimatization. That is to say, we need to consider the local cultural situation in China. , the social situation. We will never give up any principled position of truth, but we cannot blindly learn from Europe and the United States, which will lead us to lack the ability to problematize the real problems of the Chinese church. For example, the Reformed theological movement has brought great blessings to mainland house churches, so the problem of the Reformed theological movement needs to be problematized. So I think the two narratives just mentioned are very valuable, one is the church in the Apostolic period and the other is the church in the Reformation period.

1. The Exodus of Chinese House Churches and Their Journey through the Wilderness

I propose a new formulation for the current situation of the Chinese church, that is, the church in the sense of the Exodus. That is to say, the mission undertaken by Chinese house churches, in the aspect of cultural Christianization, is the process of Chinese culture's exodus from Egypt. What is the basis for this analysis? Li Hongzhang said in the late Qing Dynasty that the transformation of the whole of China since 1840 is actually a major change unseen in three thousand years. Morrison came to China in 1807, and the gospel reached Guangzhou. The gospel and opium arrived in China almost at the same time, and the introduction of Western civilization came to China at the same time as Protestantism. In the past, we only linked the great changes unseen in three thousand years to political issues, the imperial system, and the end of the autocratic monarchy. In fact, this proposition also applies to culture, that is to say, the great changes unseen in three thousand years are the most profound since the Xia, Shang, and Zhou dynasties. a cultural change. And so far, Chinese society has basically only understood such profound changes as economic marketization and political democratization. In fact, the most profound thing is the Christianization of culture. For this reason, my historical sense of cultural Christianization is that it corresponds to the most profound transformation and transformation since the Xia, Shang, and Zhou dynasties.

So why do we see this transformation and change as similar to the Exodus? This involves a reinterpretation of modern Chinese history. A very thoughtful Taoist scholar, Mr. Yang Peng, mentioned that there were three yellow Jewish prophets in modern China. The first was Hong Xiuquan, the second was Sun Yat-sen, and the third was Mao Zedong. The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom is actually a pseudo-Christian movement that imitates Christianity as its core ideology. It has certain cultural significance. The 1911 Revolution led by Sun Yat-sen overthrew the Manchu absolute monarchy and ended the 2,000-year-old absolute monarchy in China. Five to eight years later, the May Fourth New Culture Movement came into being. Up to now, the mainstream cultural awareness of Chinese society has not been separated from the democracy and science of the May Fourth New Culture Movement. We are now very advanced in technology, basically forming a kind of scientism, and democracy has not been realized yet. The May 4th New Culture was closely related to the setbacks of Christianity's mission in China in 1949, because the May 4th New Culture proposed democracy and science, Cai Yuanpei proposed to replace religion with aesthetic education, and then followed the non-basic movement in the 1920s and 1930s. Until now, the narrative of the entire mainstream Chinese society has not bid farewell to the May Fourth Movement. The May Fourth New Culture Movement is related to the third yellow Jewish prophet, Mao Zedong, which means that the May Fourth New Culture is related to the spread of communism in China. Because democracy, science, Darwin's theory of evolution and communism's heaven on earth have an inherent fit. According to the research of Western scholars, communism is actually the secularization of Christianity, a pseudo-Christianity in another sense. Today, we only talk about its inner logic, without making an in-depth analysis.

This logic gives us a new understanding of Chinese history from 1840 to the present. The influence of the first wave of Judeo-Christian culture on China was the Taiping Rebellion; the second wave was the Revolution of 1911; the third wave was the Communist Revolution. Hong Xiuquan, Sun Yat-sen, Mao Zedong; a pseudo-Christian, a Christian, and then another pseudo-Christian. After communism, the house church, which has existed for more than 30 years from the death of Mao Zedong in 1976, is known in the West as the House Church Movement. This English term is not well understood by the Chinese church, but it is a special term in the West, that is, it is called the house church movement. After Mao Zedong, there was a new wave of spreading the Christian faith in China, which constituted the key to the nearly two hundred years of China's transformation history. The prerequisite for Chinese culture to leave Egypt is to enter Egypt. It was these three yellow Jewish prophets who led Chinese culture into Egypt. God used Hong Xiuquan, Sun Yat-sen, and Mao Zedong to bring Chinese culture into Egypt, so that Chinese culture was changed. From Hong Xiuquan to Sun Yat-sen to Mao Zedong, the transformation of Chinese culture has been stronger and stronger. Especially in the Mao Zedong era, the complete transformation of Chinese culture made Chinese culture like an upside-down cup with its mouth facing downwards, a heaven on earth. And the kingdom of Christ opens up. But the shape of the upside-down cup is a Christian shape. Some people hope to turn the cup with the opening downward and turn it back into a Confucian tea cup. This is impossible unless the cup is broken, but we know that there is no one People can have the energy of Mao Zedong to smash this Christian-shaped cup that has been made and make it into a Confucian tea cup. Efforts to Confucianize a harmonious society are unlikely to succeed. And the house church movement actually turned the cup upside down so that it opened up. In the future, the mission of the deepening of the house church movement and the Christianization of culture is to bring Chinese culture out of cultural Egypt by a group of Chinese Moses prophets.

The background of the Israelites' entry into Egypt at that time is very similar to today's China. At that time, the whole generation of Israel was very spiritually corrupted, and the good land of Canaan became a place where famine prevailed. Then Jacob's family had to go to Egypt to seek food. Before that, Joseph, the most godly at the time, went to Egypt and put Egypt such a different place. The place of teaching becomes the place with abundant resources. The rebellious, spiritually depraved people of God had to go to a pagan place to seek food. And here, the work done by Joseph, a politician and servant of God that God is pleased with, is to give the Israelites food on the surface, but in fact, by giving them food and other external resources, the Israelites have The corrupted generation was brought back to God and re-established an intimate relationship with God. This was the logic of entering Egypt.

And this logic is completely applicable to today's Chinese society. Why did China experience the Taiping Rebellion, the Revolution of 1911 and the Communist Revolution in modern times? A very important reason is the resource crisis of Chinese culture, that is to say, in the face of the impact of Western culture, its resources are in crisis, and they have to enter the anti-Christian Taiping Rebellion and the communist culture to demand resources. But that's not where the real resource is. So after the death of a communist leader like Mao Zedong, a spiritual crisis and a temporal crisis occurred simultaneously. The marketization of the economy, along with the house church movement, prepared the whole Chinese culture for the exodus from Egypt. The greater revival we will welcome in the future is the change in the demographic structure of the entire Chinese Christian faith, say, from 5, 6 to 10, or even 20 percent. Such a larger-scale change is that we get rid of the slavery of the soul and run towards the freedom of the soul, which is the core narrative of the entire Exodus. Therefore, the collapse of the natural order in China, the collapse of the sky and the earth, the continuous earthquakes, the continuous natural disasters, the drought in the southwest, the collapse of the social order, various mass, self-immolation, murder, etc. emerge in an endless stream, the contradiction between officials and the people, the contradiction between economy and politics We are getting closer to the tipping point of the crisis. The solution to these external natural order and social order crises is rooted in seeking spiritual spiritual order, which is exactly the logic of the Israelites entering and leaving Egypt. Entering Egypt is for food, leaving Egypt is for freedom. The three yellow Jewish prophets of Chinese culture brought Chinese culture into Egypt because of resources; they left Egypt for freedom. Therefore, when the Chinese Moses prophets and Chinese house churches brought the Chinese out of Egypt, they no longer entered Egypt for food like Joseph’s generation did when they entered Egypt, but left Egypt for freedom.

(1) The purpose of going out of Egypt is to enter Canaan, and going through the wilderness is a refinement between entry and exit.

The revival of Chinese house churches has been brewing since 1989. 1989 was the exodus of the souls of mainland Chinese people. It echoed the spiritual revolution in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. With the blood of the Chinese people, it has awakened mankind's desire to pursue freedom and cherish life. The hearts of the students of the 1980s and 1990s turned to Jesus Christ, which produced a group of urban house church pastors. Around 1997, house churches in Beijing and other cities began to see a climax of large-scale conversion of college students and intellectuals. From 2001 to the long-term outdoor worship of Shouwang Church in April 2011, China's urban house churches have experienced four shifts in focus during the decade: from family in 2000-2004, to registration in 2005-2007, and then to 2007 -The office building in 2009, and then the building in 2009-2010. [1] The urban house churches represented by the Beijing Shouwang Church successively put forward theories such as registration dialogue theory, surfacing theory, and church building theory. The Four Modernizations Theory. [2]

Major events that have occurred on the subject of the gospel since 2008 include: Shouwang Church was found to be illegal in 2008, Shouwang’s outdoor worship in 2009, Shouwang Church began long-term outdoor worship in 2011, and members of its governance committee were placed under long-term house arrest. The party-state has adopted a delaying strategy on social issues. After the 2012-13 election, the party-state lacked the will and ability to completely eliminate Chinese house churches. So stalemate becomes the most real state. The stalemate of house churches reflects the strong strength of the house church sector. After 64 years of persecution, it has not been eliminated, but it has been able to form a partial balance with the party-state, forcing the party-state not to recognize its legitimacy, nor to forcefully suppress it. As of 2013, the Holy Bureau is still in a stalemate.

Shouwang Church planted a church but could not get in. The spiritual implication behind this phenomenon is that there is a stalemate between the expansion of God’s kingdom and the communist spiritual world system. In the future, both countries will be in a state of either advancing or retreating. The Chinese culture began to prepare for the exodus from Egypt in 1978, began to leave Egypt in 1989, crossed the Red Sea around 2009, and started the journey through the wilderness after 2010.

(2) To pass through the wilderness is to abandon all creatures

1. The home and the outdoors; the gates and the wilderness

Overwatch's public theology of the City on the Hill is rooted in its evangelical Reformed theological stance. This is consistent with the vision of the holy mountain[3]. "The foundation of the LORD is on the holy mountain. The LORD loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob. O city of God, many glorious things are said of you."[4]

The relationship between the Shouwang stalemate and the Sacred Situation in China reflects the weakness of house churches, and the long-term stalemate between the two parties reflects the party-state's lack of dictatorial traditions of determination in the context of a global civil society. The family prison and house arrest model is a continuation of the Great Wall and High Wall model from Chinese tradition to communist political culture. Families, city gates, and human walls constitute a unique landscape of the evangelization process in Beijing. Wind and snow worship, platform worship, etc., have become classic images of urban house churches in China.

Urban house churches in China face the tension between Chengmen theology and wilderness theology. We were watching and praying to get the city gate, but we were greeted by the wilderness of the house church. Outdoor worship is a typical event going through the wilderness. Outside the family, the church goes out of the family and is in direct conflict with the state. What is the outdoors? The outdoors is the wilderness of Chinese house churches. It can be considered that after the Chinese house churches endured persecution and stood firm in the city, the Chinese Christian churches have already crossed the Red Sea and began a long period of training in the wilderness.

2. The center of refinement in the wilderness is to abandon all creatures

It is the wilderness, not the city gate, that is the center of the current spiritual experience of Chinese house churches. We are far from possessing the land, and God is only a moving tent, not the indwelling Christ. Now, the Chinese church has actually crossed the Red Sea and entered the early stage of going through the wilderness.

At present, Chinese house churches are in the wilderness period. This is a necessary baptism for Chinese house churches, especially urban house churches. The wilderness, John of the Cross says, refers to the inner abandonment of all creation. [5] The 40 years in the wilderness of the Israelites constitute an important contrast to the decades to come in the Chinese house church. The Israelites had two major events during their passage through the wilderness. One was the covenant at Mount Sinai and the other was the construction of the Tabernacle. These two events were the key to the passage through the wilderness. The process of going through the wilderness is also the process of the spiritual revolution of Chinese culture. In the process of refinement, the covenant of grace is integrated into Chinese culture; the spiritual life of Chinese Christians experiences the crucified Christ and the resurrected Christ, and a generation that God is pleased to enter into Canaan can rise up.

2. Wisdom through the wilderness and desert

As John of the Cross said, to ascend is to descend. The wilderness is first and foremost a desert. Desert wisdom is wisdom through the wilderness. Moses led the Israelites in the desert for forty years, and Jesus fasted and prayed in the desert for forty days. The essence of going through the wilderness is refining, and the most important thing is the death of the old self, the maturity of the new man, and the entry of a new generation into Canaan in Christ. The essence of wilderness theology lies in potting and refining.

Moses, Jesus, and Anthony, the godfather of the desert, all experienced trials in the wilderness and prayers in the desert: desert wisdom is the inheritance of transcendental godly wisdom[6], which is rooted in the creation of living water through Christ in the desert in the wilderness of rivers.

(1) Three Models of Desert Wisdom and Spiritual Tradition: Desert Godfather-Monastery-World Monastery

In the history of the church, the desert patriarchal system has a fundamental spiritual foundation. Observing the history of the Christian church with spiritual theology, the desert church father system arose from the initial formation of the early church to the period before and after the promulgation of the Edict of Milan, which had a great impact on the history of the church for two thousand years. In 251 AD, Anthony, the godfather of the desert, was born. The Desert Fathers Movement in about 200 years promoted the establishment of the monastery system, and the monastery system supported the Catholic Church for 1,000 years, that is, from the peak of the Desert Fathers system in 480 to the religious reform in 1517. From the perspective of the entire Western church history, the development stages of spiritual theology and practice are as follows: Desert Fathers System - Monastic System - World Monastery of the Reformation.

We can view the relationship between the three spiritual modes and the mission process from the perspective of the continent and the sea [7]. Eurasian Africa is called the world island, and Asia is the ontology. The desert spiritual movement in North Africa has achieved European missions, and the monastic system has achieved American missions. In the new round of missions in Asia and Africa, Reformed theology plays an important role.

The Reformation movement, which brought spiritual practice from the Christian church into society. The world is the monastery, which places higher demands on the immanence and transcendence of spirituality. The world monastery model realizes the integration of red martyrdom, white martyrdom and green martyrdom. The advantages of the Protestant model of spirituality are centered on two points, one is rooted in the Bible, and the other is the dimension of public theology.

(2) The core structure of desert wisdom

The core structure of desert wisdom is desolation and fullness, gravel and living water, sacred and secular. The three essentials of desert wisdom are silence, patience, and obedience.

Desert wisdom belongs to white martyrdom, that is, "white martyrdom refers to giving up everything for the sake of loving God"[8], and white means giving up everything in the world for the sake of holiness. The two keys to desert wisdom, one is Satan, the other is the world, and the ego is the neighbor. Emphasizing that experience is really putting yourself at the center. To respond to love with love is to deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow Jesus. Desert Wisdom just ignores prayer because it prays all the time; it emphasizes silence and quietness. The ego is not an enemy, but a neighbor. The enemy is the devil, and the world. Anthony had the power to accompany the holy witness, but never boasted, but gave the glory to God. Judge without boasting, but give glory to God. Desert wisdom is the wisdom of life and death, the experience of the crucified Christ, and the testimony of the resurrected Christ. Desert Wisdom is a life-and-death problem in the Holy Bureau of Chinese house churches.

The characteristics of desert wisdom can be seen from two aspects: one is the ascetic training, and the other is the supply of living water after the training. This is the basic approach of spiritual practice: retreating to the desert to meet the Lord, life being refined and sculpted by the Lord, and growing in life and faith. This kind of wisdom is also explained in the Bible, which is the wisdom of opening roads in the wilderness and rivers in the desert, and it is also the Lord Jesus promises: "He who believes in me will flow rivers of living water from his belly." Christian piety is to turn the spiritual desert into living water and an oasis. The sea of living water begins in the desert. As Hou Shiting said: "If a man can live long in the desert, he has found an oasis; in other words, we must cultivate a garden for God in the desert, just as the prophet Isaiah prophesied that there will be a place in the desert in the future. roses appear."[9]

The whole of modernity is the expansion of the ocean, the failure of the continent. The origin of the ocean is in the desert. Christianity is oceanic, and the foundations of Christianity—water, the Holy Spirit, and blood—are oceanic. At the same time, Christianity is also a religion based on desert wisdom. The water, the Holy Spirit, and the blood, all come from God, and the wisdom of the desert is to make itself a desert so that the waters of God can flow in, which is wisdom that empties itself and fills itself with the Holy Spirit, which is asceticism wisdom.

This is true not only for individuals, but also for the church. Desert wisdom can be a great way to provide a spiritual foundation for a church. The spiritual resources drawn from desert wisdom are the result of a true inner union with the Lord, a true life connection that is both stable and rich. The Church is the body of Jesus Christ, and must be closely connected to this Head and continually receive the living water of life from Jesus Christ. And desert intelligence provides that stability and richness. Those who are spiritually rooted must be forged on the fringes. Desert Wisdom embodies Yu's philosophy, seemingly having nothing but having everything.

(3) The journey through the wilderness of Chinese house churches is to cross the spiritual desert, open rivers in the desert, turn the desert into a spring, and pray for the living water and light of grace

Before the promulgation of the Edict of Milan in 313, the godfather of the desert was raised to prepare the wisdom of the desert. Before the arrival of China's Edict of Milan, Chinese house churches needed to experience the consciousness and accumulation of desert wisdom, and needed a spiritual movement similar to the desert godfather.

The spiritual desert of Chinese society is the spiritual wilderness of Chinese Christians. The refinement in this is God opening rivers in the desert. Desert Wisdom is the most profound spiritual revolution. The relationship between the desert and the spring is exactly what inspires us to face the spiritual desert of the Chinese people, and to explore how to get living water in the desert. This is to use Christians' devout spiritual practice to turn the spiritual desert into living water and an oasis. For this reason, the study and absorption of the spiritual theology of Mrs. Bing-Louis and Brother Ni Tuosheng need to be further deepened. [10]

A true saint will face the trials of the environment calmly, regard every situation as a gift from God and accept it with joy, always experience the absolute dimension of the desert godfather, willingly practice patience, silence, and obedience, be brave and diligent, and endure self-denial. , Quietly and obediently, only in this way can the vision and mission of the Holy Way, the Holy Power and the Holy Authority be accomplished.

Inspired by desert wisdom, Holy Mountain Church is committed to exploring the combination of desert wisdom and the situation of Chinese churches, and has developed a spiritual practice centered on fasting and prayer; a pastoral system centered on a discipleship system; and spiritual theology , a theology of grace in which public theology and biblical theology go hand in hand.

3. Grace China and Grace Theology

The Hebrew word for Grace is hesed and hen, and the Greek word charis and charizesthai. In the Old Testament hesed is translated as love, grace, mercy and goodness. With regard to God, it refers to his grace and love. And hen specifically refers to the mercy and favor from above. [11]

What is grace? Grace means forgiveness of sins; free and undeserved, free not cheap, blessing not control; life-changing, gift from the cross. Grace means the death of Christ, the giving of eternal life, and the sending of the Holy Spirit. Grace can be divided into inner grace and outer grace. The emphasis here is the operation of the Holy Spirit in the heart of man, that is, inner grace. The core content of inner grace is the forgiveness of sins, the giving of life, and the sending of the Holy Spirit. Augustine said that grace is the joy of love; Aquinas believed that grace is an infused habit. “Righteousness and grace can be said to be the north and south poles of the whole of redemptive revelation. Everything experienced by the redeemed can be subsumed into one or the other.”[12]

The Chinese church has experienced the vision of the Huafu Movement and missionary China, Pastor Zhao Tianen's vision of three transformations, and Pastor Yuan Zhiming's vision of Shenzhou[13]. China's urban house churches once regarded openness and legalization as a vision[14]. With the long-term outdoor worship of Shouwang Church, it has raised questions about whether it can become a vision.

The focus of this article is to focus on the difference between mission China and the vision of grace China, what is grace China, why, and how is grace China possible? Grace China is related to the transformation of Chinese house churches and a series of issues such as how to overcome the bottleneck period of urban house churches.

(1) Grace China is a China that forgives sins, a China that is blessed by the love of the cross, and a China that renews life with the blood of Jesus

What is Grace China? The Holy Authority in China is the China of grace, and the so-called China of grace is the China of forgiveness of sins, the China of love, the China of justice, and the China of renewed life.

Why does China need grace? Need a covenant of grace? Because of the current social and cultural situation, environmental pollution, moral decline, polarization between the rich and the poor, corruption prevailing, secularization and consumerism prevail, and China's billions of souls are in turmoil and restless, and need to go to the truth of the cross. In 2013, the Red Guards published an apology in the newspaper, and Chen Yi's son Chen Xiaolu apologized to the teachers who were hurt by the Red Guards[15], which reflects the emotion of repentance and the spiritual life of Chinese people. thirst for renewal. This is an important moment in Chinese spiritual history.

Grace is free but expensive, brought with the scars and blood of Jesus' crucifixion, and can renew life. The grace conveyed by the Gospel will become a good medicine to heal the ailments of more than one billion souls in an era when the hearts of Chinese people are full of bitterness and resentment, values are chaotic, and the path of transformation is ambiguous. Since the Revolution of 1911, the Chinese have been striving for cultural transformation and seeking a cure for the world. However, intellectuals are not medicines, but become diseases (Herzen). In China in the 21st century, God's grace will surpass efforts such as Confucianization and become a blessing for individual life, value cohesion, and even the renewal of Chinese culture.

(2) The center of grace China is to receive the covenant of grace

There were two major events in the refinement of the Israelites in the wilderness, namely, the establishment of the covenant at Mount Sinai and the construction of the tabernacle. The center of the Chinese house church through the wilderness is also the Christ who received the covenant of grace and truly experienced the crucifixion and resurrection. The essence of grace China is the acceptance and acceptance of the covenant of grace.

The Hebrew word for "covenant" is berit, the Greek word is diatheke, and its synonym is diatithamis. Theologically, "covenant" refers to the covenant relationship between God and man. Covenants can be divided into two types: the covenant of work and the covenant of grace. [16] The covenant of grace refers to that when the first human ancestors violated God’s commandments and fell, and were cursed, punished, and executed as the result of breaking the law, the “covenant of work” no longer became a covenant between God and man. God found another way out for fallen mankind, that is, he established another "covenant of grace". God cares about what man was originally created for him, so he has opened up a new and living path for mankind with unconditional conditions. This covenant of redemption and privilege is called the "covenant of grace." The foundation of the covenant of grace is God's eternal will and unchanging grace. "God saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his will and grace, which was given to us in Christ Jesus before all ages."[17] The Covenant of Grace has the central message of God's words to the beneficiaries, "I will be your God, and you will be my people."

(3) Grace China needs to return the Puritans to the Augustine tradition of grace theology

1. The center of the theology of grace is the middle way of the cross

Compared with missionary China, Grace China is not only the spread of the gospel, but also the reconstruction of the spiritual order of the Chinese people and the renewal of the public order and the cosmic order with the relationship between heaven and man and the relationship between God and man as the core content. The fundamental renewal effect of the covenant of grace on the structure of Chinese culture is not only reflected in the transcendental dimension of God as the absolute other, but also in the values of love, justice, and covenant.

The way of the new Chinese culture is the middle way of the cross[18]. The transformation of the cross is the transformation of the middle way of the cross. The Middle Way of the Cross is the encounter between the Cross and the Middle Way, the surrender of self-righteousness to grace. And the center of the way of the cross is the crucified Christ, the resurrected Christ, and the victorious Christ.

2. The core structures of the theology of grace are spiritual theology, public theology, and biblical theology

The essence of grace theology is the contextualization of the old gospel—patristic theology and Reformed theology. The structure of the theology of grace includes biblical theology, spiritual theology, and public theology. The three form an interactive relationship, promote and complement each other.

3. The theology of grace is the renewal of Chinese cultural traditions and the way of new inner saints and outer kings

We borrow the concept of Zhuangzi's concept of inner saints and outer kings to interpret the theology of grace, and propose that it is the "new inner saints and outer kings" of Chinese culture. Among them, the new inner saint refers to spiritual theology, the new outer king refers to public theology, and the new way refers to the middle way of the cross. This concept is different from the architectural metaphor of Western systematic theology, which expresses the metaphor of personality, life, and path. Although this concept differs from the approach of Western systematic theology, it also absorbs the structural advantages of systematic theology.

During the journey through the wilderness, Chinese house churches should calmly endure trials and prepare grace China with desert wisdom. This grace in the desert, the spring in the desert, and the road in the sea will be the blessing of an ancient civilization transformed into a kingdom of grace and freedom.

* Director of Zhongfu Shengshan Research Institute.

[1] Liu Tongsu and Wang Yi: "Watching Urban House Churches in China", pp. 149-150, Taiwan Kiwen Press, 2012 edition.

[2] “At the Beijing Pastoral Prayer Meeting, the pastor of a certain church put forward the four modernizations: that is, the line of “legalization, mainstreaming, openness, and internationalization” of house churches.” See Guo Yijun: “China House Churches” Where is the Road?" http://www.shengshan.org.cn/bbs/ ... &extra=page%3D1 . Guo Wen finally put forward that "at present, house churches should shelve their legalization demands and suspend the strategy of making them public," which is markedly different from the views of Shouwang Church and Pastor Liu Tongsu.

[3] For the vision of the Holy Mountain, please refer to Fan Yafeng: "Vision, Holy Bureau and Strategy", Holy Mountain Magazine, No. 1, 2009, see also http://www.gongfa.com/html/gongf ... /2009/0529/434.html .

[4] The United Bible, Psalm 87:1-3.

[5] John of the Cross: The Dark Night of the Heart, Chapter 19.

[6] The author believes that human civilization has three kinds of wisdom, namely the knowledge-seeking wisdom of Greek civilization, the strategic wisdom of Chinese culture, and the godly wisdom of Judeo-Christianity. .

[7] See Mackinder: The Ideal and Reality of Democracy, translated by Wu Yuan, Commercial Press, 1965; and Lin Guoji: The Tradition of Social Contract Theory in the Context of Theosophy.

[8] Quoted from Timothy Ware, The Orthodox Church, p.15. See You Guanhui: Three Martyrs: White, Green, and Red, http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_62a5c4650100ftgp .html .

[9] Hou Shiting: The first chapter of "History of the Development of Spiritual Theology".

[10] There are four layers of spiritual life in the spiritual theology of Mrs. Bing-Louis, namely the gospel, the revival, the cross, and the victory of the battle. And each level is divided into three stages - out of Egypt (self-cleaning), crossing the Red Sea (illumination), and entering Canaan (unity). It uses the exodus as a metaphor for the spiritual process, which has important supplementary significance for the interpretation of the spiritual theology of the exodus. The spiritual theology of the Exodus is interpreted as a rich tradition, represented by Gregory of Nyssa and others.

[11] Tang Chongping: "The Real Meaning of Christian Faith".

[12] Huo Zhiheng: Biblical Theology, Old Testament, translated by Li Paul, Hong Kong Tiandao Books Co., Ltd. 2009 edition, p. 26.

[13] For a detailed analysis, see my article: "Visions, Sacred Bureaus, and Strategies," the first issue of "Sacred Mountain" magazine.

[14] See Liu Tongsu and Wang Yi: “Introduction to Watching Urban House Churches in China,” pp. 33-36, Taipei Kiwen Press, 2012 edition.

[15] "The Red Guards of the Cultural Revolution advertised an apology: personal responsibility for doing evil cannot be ignored", http://news.sina.com.cn/c/sd/2013-06-18/033927425514.shtml , Liu Boqin's apology advertisement was published In "Yanhuang Chunqiu" magazine, No. 6, 2013; "Chen Xiaolu, son of Chen Yi, reflects on the Cultural Revolution and sincerely apologizes", http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_5bb296a00102evbl.html .

[16] Fok Chi Hang: Biblical Theology, Old Testament, translated by Li Paul, pp. 30-34, Hong Kong Tiandao Books Co., Ltd., 2009 edition.

[17] The United States and the United States mentioned a 9.

[18] "The Middle Way of the Cross" will be explained in detail in other articles, and only the main point will be described here.